Tales of the Everglades python hunters in search of the elusive snake

William DeShazer/Staff
A brooks king snake rests in the tall grass in Big Cypress National Preserve on Saturday Jan. 19, 2013.

Tom Mooney

Doug Stamm

Tucker Hanks

Tom Mooney, 47, of North Naples, sits in a camouflage chair rigged to the roof of his yellow Toyota FJ Cruiser and scans the ground through high-powered binoculars.

He's hunting pythons — and not having much luck at it, despite having taken a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission training course on Skype about where to find the elusive creatures.

"There have been more snakes killed on (U.S. 41) than have been caught," Mooney laments, counting up the three dozen pythons tallied as of last week during the state's Python Challenge.

The month-long hunt is getting a traveling plug from Mooney, who advertises the event on each of his hubcaps with rolling billboards produced by the Naples company he founded and is about to take global.

Perched atop his retro-style SUV in the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County, Mooney is a world away from corporate life.

"This is a stress reliever for me," Mooney said.

* * * * *

Doug Stamm was returning to Naples from a python hunting trip when he saw what he thinks was a Burmese python on the side of Tamiami Trail, part in the grass and part on the pavement, near Port of the Islands.

"His head was about as big around as a Coke can," said Stamm, 64, a retired biologist from Wisconsin who spends his winters in North Naples.

He thought about running it over, but didn't want to kill it that way. He wasn't completely sure it was a python anyway. He drove past the snake for about 50 yards before deciding to turn around to look for it.

By then, the snake was gone, but it was the closest he's come to finding a python during the state-sponsored hunt under way in the Everglades.

He guesses that his best chance of finding a python is along a road or canal where it's illegal to shoot a gun. That leaves the machete — and a queasy feeling in Stamm's stomach.

"I don't really want to get into hand-to-hand combat with a snake," he said. "Would you?"

* * * * *

Tucker Hanks, 10, is not afraid of snakes.

"Never have been," the fourth-grader at Lake Park Elementary in Naples said.

In fact, he loves snakes. So when a friend told him about Florida's big python hunt, he went to the Internet to find out more about it and then told his dad.

"I was excited because my dad and I wanted to hunt them for a long, long time," Tucker said.

They loaded up their black lab, Izzy, and drove out to Big Cypress National Preserve. They had been making snake hooks for the hunt, but they weren't ready yet so they brought a grabbing tool instead.

Tucker said he knew it was going to be hard to find one, but is a little surprised he hasn't found one after two trips.

He did find a cottonmouth coiled up in a sunny spot on a canal bank. He got a picture of it and left it alone, he said.

He's hoping to pick up some python tips from the "Python Hunters" reality show before their next trip, and hopes the snake hooks are ready by then.